Email Newsletters Are The New Sunday Papers

Sign up for some email newsletters. You won't regret it. Photo: iStockSource:Whimn

Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way: I have a TinyLetter, that’s an email newsletter, called Head Ovary Heels (also a podcast). I hit send every second Wednesday night to subscribers who are a mix of friends and strangers. In my electronic missive I include a list of links I love, podcasts I adore and things I want to buy. It’s a pretty simple formula.

I’m not the only lady sending emails full of links and loves. Lena Dunham and her Girls writing partner Jenni Konner have a newsletter called Lenny Letter. In an interview with Kara Swisher, Lena and Jenni said they chose the newsletter format as it’s less noisy, less combative than the wilds of the world wide web.

For British writer Dolly Alderton of The Dolly Mail, her newsletter is a place to scribble madly about all the things that don’t fit into conventional press: “an extended ponder on why I love the rain, a polemic on why I hate wedding gift registries, a vicious takedown of ABBA’s Dancing Queen.” For women writers, it’s a place to be unedited, to not make sense and joyfully rant to friends and followers, without the trolls.

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It seems everyone has an email newsletter. Gwyneth Paltrow started her media and shopping empire Goop from her kitchen table with a list of restaurant recommendations and a promise to nourish the inner aspect. One half of Call Your Girlfriend podcast Ann Friedman has the New York Times-rated Ann Friedman Weekly. (Ladies, sign up, it’s so good.) And then there’s The Skimm from Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, a morning news digest with over 4 million subscribers.

In other tabs, there’s TinyLetter at the DIY end of the email newsletter spectrum. It’s a free service from email juggernaut MailChimp that lets anyone send notes to their (less than 5000) subscribers. So it’s not like Beyonce has a TinyLetter and that’s fine. TinyLetters are on the artisanal side of digital. Fancy a TinyLetter filled with podcast recommendations? Sure! The Auditors TinyLetter is here for you. If you’d like a poem in your inbox each day try Pome. Or maybe Mallory Ortberg aka Dear Prudence sending you her Star Trek-related thoughts in The Shatner Chatner.

Email is so old (46 years young) it’s on the way out while marching back in. If you want to get in touch with friends there’s text, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or Google Hangout. In our work lives, new messaging services like Slack disrupt the inbox. So what’s email good for?

Well, electronic newsletters exist in a confined space. They give us something to read at your desk, on the bus or before bed. European tech journalist Neil Murray writes on Medium that newsletters are the new Sunday papers - something to dip in and out of, leisurely, take your time with those clicks. Email is quaint. It’s old-fashioned, soothing, reliable, intimate. We know email and email knows us.

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